CARDIGAN ABC brothers Ioan and Garan Croft took on and beat some of the best young talent in Europe when representing Wales at the prestigious Danas Pozniakas tournament in Lithaunia.

The Crymych twins won gold medals in the 60kg and 64kg divisions respectively – and still appeared to have something to spare, with neither feeling that their gold medal-winning displays were their best performances of the tournament.

Garan had to overcame a scare in the preliminaries when Estonia’s Semem Kamanin brought him to his knees in the opening round - an incident which Cardigan ABC head coach Guy Croft described as ‘part punch and part stumble’.

“The ref must have thought it was a stumble,” he said afterwards. “Garan was amazed he didn’t get a count, he said the punch rocked him. But apart from that lapse, he boxed really well and won 5-0.”

Southpaw Ioan easily overcame Russia’s Safin Aaksim in their quarter-final bout, handing him an eight count in the second round, and almost forcing a stoppage.

Garan then enjoyed a similar victory at the same stage, giving Laurikietis, of Lithuania, an eight count, while handing out a boxing lesson - a performance which his twin brother subsequently declared was the best that he had ever seen him box.

The Crofts continued to show mastery in the semi-finals, with Ioan stopping David Andieyev, of Estonia, with a body shot in the second round, while Garan recorded another unanimous victory over Bulgarian Uristov Stilyan to reach the final.

In the finals, Ioan was pitted against Frenchman Grau Hugo who, in the words of Croft senior, ‘ran and wouldn’t box’.

The Welsh teenager won 5-0 to claim the lightweight (60kg) honours, while his brother Garan battled his way to a 3-2 verdict against tough Ukrainian Alliev Elvyno who ‘just held and spoiled’ in the final of the light welterweight (64kg) event.

Taylor Bevan’s win at 69kg made it a hat-trick of Welsh golds, beating Bulgaria’s EUBC Champion Emirdzhan Mehmed and Czech Republic’s Milos Beranek.